Re: Do you guys even know Stalin?
Prof Voluptuary said:
Stalin just "won a war" on the side of the US -- but everyone forgets Stalin helped start it and was quite involved in the genocide that Hitler is often solely blamed for!
Sorry mate - I think you're wrong. If you are speaking of the whole "Red Army was poised to invade Europe" business - it's been debunked
Sure, they had a "Friendship Treaty" but both sides knew it was a sham.
Hitler built his empire and acquired power based on his loathing for Jews and Communists - Stalin didn't set that into motion. Hitler did.
Prof Voluptuary said:
And to a point far worse than Hitler and his Nazi party, Stalin rose to power in the Communist party and maintained power by killing off his critics, to the point that Lenin was at odds with him.
Uhhh, Ernest Roehm? Night of the Long Knives? Arrest of the Strassers and countless top generals BEFORE and DURING the war? The murder of over 4000
suspects failing the July 1944 bomb plot?
Suerly, Hitler was as dirty as Stalin!
Prof Voluptuary said:
But unlike Hitler, Stalin massacred countless mindshare in his own country's infrastructure, a fact that bit him in the ass when it came to WWII. At least Hitler wasn't stupid enough from that infrastructure aspect.
Eh, this is debateable.
Puerly from a historical PoV - Hitler's invasion of USSR was a cosmic blunder. The majority of German troops weren't motorised, there was no scale for logistics to keep the panzers supplied, there was no strategic bomber wing, armaments and munitions production were significantly lower than capacity because Hitler refused to re-organise German labour laws and his contant meddling in the affairs of the Army cost them precious lives, materiel and time.
On the contrary, Stalin was very ruthless in running the war - moved his production centers far away from the threat, built up reserves, concentrated on streamlining logistics, and once the inital thread of 1941 had passed - relatively gave his Generals a freer hand than Hitler did.
This matter is a huge debate
Prof Voluptuary said:
US General George S. Patton did not hold any punches on his distain for the Soviet and Stalin's thirst for conquest at the cost of civilian collateral and was often criticized for it by the US media and politicians because the USSR was our "ally" in WWII. This "under-reporting" and "we can't criticize Stalin because he was our ally" -- e.g., "The Big Three" (FDR, Churchill and Stalin) -- is why most people think Hitler was far worse.
This may very well be a valid point.
Prof Voluptuary said:
Stalin takes the cake on the number of innocent civilians killed -- worse than Hitler.
And here some people might disagree with you.
For arguments sake:
Hitler commited
Genocide.
Stalin practiced
Democide.
Hitler murdered Jews, Slavs, Poles etc. because of their "blood". They were "inhuman". "Born defective" etc.
Stalin murdered so called "opponents of the State" - non communists, land owners, Kulaks etc.
Hence, some argue that - as a non-communist, you CAN convert to Communism and thus escape punishment.... unlike the Third Reich's racial policy which didn't care if you were a Jew-who-converted-to-Christianity---you were still a 'tainted' Jew.
Personally, I think it's a rather moot argument. Both were unspeakably horrible.
cheers,